Discussions have reportedly taken place to redesign the current passport

Campaigners are urging the burgundy passport, emblazoned with the European Union, be ditched in a sign of regaining our powers back from Brussels.

The old-style Navy blue document were phased out in 1988 but could now make a return following Brexit.

The successful firm would produce 6 million passports annually with the contract running for more than a decade.

Tory MP Peter Bone last night said: “A new re-designed passport is one of the advantages of not being part of the EU super-state.

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“Having got back our national independence, we can express that by having our own passports again.

“When I go round the streets that’s what people want to see and the fact that we’re getting on with it now is absolutely right.

“If we’re having a new passport, let’s have it blue.”

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said the burgundy passport is a “source of humiliation”. He added: “The restoration of our own British passport is a clear statement to the world that Britain is back.

“Our British identity was slowly but surely being submerged into an artificial European one most Brits felt increasingly unhappy about. National identity matters and there is no better way of demonstrating this today than by bringing back this much-loved national symbol when travelling overseas.”

But Lib Dem chief Tim Farron said a change would be “just another expense on the ever- increasing cost of Brexit”.

He added: “This is a completely superficial expenditure that could have been spent on our hospitals and schools.”

The Home Office said: “The timing of any potential changes to the passport after the UK has left the EU has not been set.”

Home Office Minister Robert Goodwill last year said the department was “considering potential changes”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK passport is routinely redesigned every five years to guard against counterfeiting.

“We are launching the procurement process now to ensure there is sufficient time to produce and design UK passports from 2019 when the current contract ends.